Moyo Ogundipe is a professor of Fine and Creative Arts at the Bowen University, Iwo, Osun State. He is known for his love for myths in his works. In his ongoing exhibition in Lagos, Ogundipe’s offerings are filled with what he described as mixture of poems and paintings. In other words, the title of his exhibition Mythopoeia is a derivative from both poems and myths. This is why he is fondly described as a painter of mythscapes; a mythmaker.
About all these, he said himself, “Yes my recent works are based on mythology and poetry. Mythology being an attempt by human beings to understand the world they live in. In doing this, we create stories to justify our presence on this strange, mysterious and magical world. Yes, we always try to create stories, to have rites of passage and to know the process of the reasons why we are here,” he said.
In his works, Ogundipe who once lived in Denver, the United States of America tries to explore both worlds – Nigeria and USA. His early exposure to the mystics of his Yoruba traditions, inform his deep excursion into the origin and nature of man. This early history provides a useful frame for his current multimedia paintings – the focus of the exhibition. Indeed, his return to Nigeria in 2008 led him to turn inwards, to look deeper into those elements of culture he might have taken for granted all along.
He said: “I try to explore where we are coming from and where we are going to. And the language of mythology is usually poetry. Indeed, that is the language I have adopted in most of my works. It was about 8 years ago that I had my last exhibition here in Nigeria. Today, what I have noticed is that there have been changes, in my works – themes that I create, including the technique. In my artistic statement, I made it known that after many years of experimentation, I think I have finally discovered how to define things and articulate my vision as an artist. This shows my own voice as a creative person.”
Based on this, however, it is clear that in such works like shrine of love, the artist is symbolic in his message. It embodies tradition and human nature. It is part of his search for the unending meaning and reason and rhythm of life. He has three figures, with each showing the meaning of life in a distinctive way.
In her artistic statement, the curator of the exhibition, Janine Sytsma makes it clear that Ogundipe is a mythmaker. “Ogundipe arrived in the US and like most Diaspora looked back in time to view his past, his culture in order to look forward into the culture of Diaspora. He did just that. He returned to his ancestral roots for spiritual nourishment and in his works, he therefore represented Yoruba mythic imagery within new aesthetic and ideological contexts to form imaginative utopian mythscapes.”
The symbolisms of his works espouse reason and contour. They are so bold in articulation that some of them tend to dwarf the ideas embedded in the form. Yet, as an artist, Ogundipe believes that his life in the rural place of Iwo, has helped to bring him back to reality. “It is time to look at our rural folks. Here, you see a woman with a child on her back, with her tummy protruding while there’s one in front as she walks down the street. This is one of the typical rural scenes I am confronted with everyday of my life in Iwo. So, in one of my works, a scene like that is recreated and re-presented. It is part of this mystic lifestyle we are talking about,” he said.
In fact, each work evokes its own distinct response, unearthing patterns of labyrinth embedded within. It is the idea, one often finds in forms of rhapsody. In his own statement, Kunle Filani, an art scholar and critic, describes Ogundipe as a descendent of great progenitor. “Yes, his visual articulation is the summative of the meticulous intellectualization of artistic forms by the Yoruba artists over the ages. The penchant for perfect rationalization of visual images seems ceaseless in the Yoruba creative regenerative continuum. From the ancient classical Ife bronze and Terra-cotta sculptures, Owo art and even the hybrid of Benin, Tsoedo and Tada bronze to the more recent exquisite Ekiti/Igbomina wood carvings, there is a peculiar compact and sophisticated appropriation of forms that is unique in spite of the remarkable diversity of African art.”
So, it is within this ambiance that the total concept of the ideas of form, technique and style in Ogundipe’s works revolve. This concept of myths and poems are so clearly etched in his signatures.